This year’s focus was on access to healthcare, which remains a significant issue. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “On this International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, I call on the international community to ensure that they are not left behind. To create a better, more equitable future, let us commit to do more to improve the health and well-being of indigenous peoples.”

The UN will also hold a special event in its New York headquarters today to address the health and well-being of indigenous peoples.

Ok, great, you might say, but who the heck actually counts as indigenous people, and why do they have problems accessing healthcare?

Indigenous people, under the UN’s description, are those people who have a set of specific rights protected by law based on their special historical ties to a territory. Many of the world’s indigenous peoples still maintain traditional ways of living, eschewing mainstream forms of society – for example, many engage in subsistence farming. As such, many indigenous communities live in isolated areas and have trouble accessing healthcare; indeed, many healthcare systems are not technically “aware” of the existence of such communities, since they are not recorded as individuals in the system. Furthermore, there are issues of discrimination in the service delivery, as well as a lack of education regarding healthcare in the communities themselves.

When discussing the need to extend rights and cultural awareness to indigenous peoples, claims of cultural destruction and appropriation are quick to surface: “how dare we disturb their way of life with our medicine!” Or, perhaps more commonly, a prejudice against the accommodation of such communities: “if they don’t want to live like us, why should we look after them?”

The point is, in short, different ways of living exist. It’s difficult to preserve certain ways of life when one is more aggressive and dominant than another. It’s also difficult to cultivate understanding amongst the dominant group. However, if we believe in social welfare and human rights, then our willingness to help should be apparent, not only in the access to resources, but also in our welcoming attitude; that’s to say, we can help promote education about health in indigenous communities, and at the same time, promote education in our communities about indigenous peoples too.

Image: Ethnic Tajik People, Reuters

07.Aug

August 07th, 2015

Walls are never a solution

EDITOR:

Ama Lorenz

"We are witnessing a genocide caused by European selfishness," said Palermo mayor Leoluca Orlando as the Irish navy ship LE Niamh docked in the port carrying some 370 survivors of Wednesday's disaster and 25 corpses, including three children, according to REUTERS.

The LE Niamh was the first ship being on spot of the accident on Wednesday at the Libyan coast and had taken most people. Some of those rescued, who needed medical assistance, had been previously brought by helicopter to Italy. According to media reports the refugees came from Syria, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia and Bangladesh.

The drama caused again criticism of the recent efforts of the EU states to rescue refugees in the Mediterranean Sea. "There must be better ways, so that refugees do not have to risk their lives to reach Europe", demanded Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

But Europe still don’t have a clue how to handle the situation. And so the life of thousands of people is in danger by bureaucracy and publicity-seeking actionism of single politicians.

David Cameron and François Hollande both opposed recent proposals by the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, to put in place a fairer EU-wide system for resettling asylum seekers landing in Greece and Italy.

The present European asylum and migration system is based on the Dublin regulation, which forces asylum applications to be made in the first country of entry. And these are EU countries with external borders like Italy and Greece. But instead to find an European wide solution the Hungarian president, Viktor Orbán, is planning to build a four-metre-high wall on the border separating his country from Serbia, meanwhile the British and French governments plan to build another wall in Calais. European politician seem not to learn from history: Walls are never a solution!

Elizabeth Evenson has published a report on the ICC’s work in Côte d’Ivoire and how its activities could be improved to better serve those wronged by the 2010 conflict following the presidential election in the African nation, but also elsewhere.

A major criticism of the ICC’s prosecution in Côte d’Ivoire is that it has only prosecuted those on one side of the conflict, although members of both sides were implicated. A lack of communication, resources and funding has meant that while criminal cases have been opened against forces allied with former president Gbagbo, as well as Gbagbo himself, none have so far been taken against supporters of current President Ouattara.

Evenson reports that: “The prosecutor has to make really difficult decisions about who to prosecute – she can’t investigate all the crimes committed in a conflict. But that means the cases her office does prosecute need to try to create as much impact as possible.”

“The prosecution should have better reflected what happened to victims, across the conflict. Going forward, in Côte d’Ivoire and in other countries where the ICC is investigating, we think the prosecution should do more to put into practice its standing commitment to consult more with victims as part of making decisions about whom to prosecute and for what. Otherwise, if cases don’t better reflect the experience of more victims, ultimately, the court can seem irrelevant to victims and communities in the countries where investigations are conducted.”

A lack of presence in the country has meant that the ICC Registry, in charge of outreach, has not been able to assure the public of its liability through contact with journalists and citizens.

“There’s a lot of awareness of the ICC in Côte d’Ivoire because a former president is on trial. But the ICC can be very difficult to understand – why did the prosecution make the choices it made, which victims can access rights before the court – and the ICC hasn’t been able to provide that kind of information to a broad enough set of people,” explains Evenson.

This has since been rectified with a fulltime outreach staff member present in Abidjan office since October 2014.

But funding remains an issue. “Money shortfalls are the backdrop for many of the court’s decisions we saw in Côte d’Ivoire. This is particularly true for its outreach activities – the court told us they really didn’t have the money to have done things differently. And we’ve seen this shortfall in outreach in other countries where the ICC is investigating, too.”

“Sometimes I get the feeling that the court only has enough funding to put out fires, rather than to execute a solid strategy, whether in terms of what cases to bring or how to really make sure the court’s work is accessible and meaningful for local communities.”

03.Aug

August 03rd, 2015

Calais: fences and dogs for the jungle

EDITOR:

Gurmeet Singh, Berlin

On the other side of a freight tunnel is a better life. Not benefits, not welfare, but a better life; safer job prospects, a familiar language, a strong currency. From a camp called the Jungle, they walk a few miles, leap over fences, outrun police, all for the chance to get to this tunnel.

It might sound like the plot of a Hunger-Games style movie, but that’s what many migrants are doing in Calais every evening – leaving the makeshift refugee camp they call the Jungle, to make a break for the freight tunnel – if they can make the safe passage through the tunnel, in the back of a truck, or clinging to its underside, they’ll have the chance of a better life.

The Jungle, the camp that houses the migrants is horribly under-resourced, with only 30 toilets for the 3,000 people living there. To get to the UK, the migrants have to face obstacles which threaten their personal safety and wellbeing – they are not oblivious to the dangers.

“The U.K. is not paradise, it’s not heaven, I know that,” he said. “I know it’s not safe to jump on a moving train. But we have no choice. If you had a choice, why would you do this?”

That’s the sentiment of many in the camp, which is mainly made up of refugees from North East Africa and the Middle East; it’s not clear whether the term “migrant” sufficiently captures the nature of their situation; they’re fleeing war, political persecution and in some cases, devastation of their countries.

But it’s more neutral than “illegal immigrant” or “alien”. The urge to politicise these people has been overwhelming from certain actors. The UK’s response?

That means not providing adequate help and assistance so lives are not put in danger, and it also means not providing help and aid to the countries of migration. It means fences, it means dogs, which in this author’s opinion is a ridiculously antiquated and inadequate solution to the problem and clearly geared to satisfy right-wing elements in the UK who fear their own perceptions of being “swamped”.

But as one police officer in Calais reflected: “it makes you think, this job. How can you judge a guy who has nothing, who is fleeing war and just wants a life for his family?”

30.Jul

July 30th, 2015

And Yes, Racism Is Rooted in Economic Inequality

EDITOR:

Murat Suner

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said that economic inequality and institutional racism are “parallel problems” that both must be addressed at the same time, referencing the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. to combat poverty in America.

Sanders was sharply criticised last weekend at progressive conference Netroots Nation, where some black activists accused him of focusing on economic issues over racial inequality.

However, Sanders stated on NBC’s Meet the Press: “We have to end institutional racism, but we have to deal with the reality that 50% of young black kids are unemployed, that we have massive poverty in America, that we have an unsustainable level of income and wealth inequality.”

He added “My view is that we have got to deal with the fact that the middle class in this country is disappearing, that we have millions of people working for wages that are much too low impacts everybody, impacts the African American community even more,” he said on Sunday. “Those are issues that do have to be dealt with, and just at the same time as we deal with institutional racism.”

Seth Ackerman, who is on the editorial board of Jacobin, backs up that argument by referring to the history of racism and economic exploitation.

Seth asks: "If racial inequality isn’t merely a symptom of economic inequality, what is it a symptom of?"

The expected answer: "It’s a symptom of hundreds of years of slavery, colonialism, Jim Crow, and urban apartheid."

His response: "Yes. But what were slavery, colonialism, Jim Crow, and urban apartheid if not extreme forms of economic inequality?"

History provides evidence: "What was the point of England’s colonization of Ireland if not to impose a lucrative “economic inequality” on its victims? Was the urban apartheid of Haussmann’s Paris not the “symptom” of nineteenth-century economic inequality? And what exactly do you think all those African slaves were doing in the American South?"

And, if racism can’t be reduced to “economic inequality”, the residual is racial animosity in everyday life - it's the undercoat of structural racism.

And, if freedom means anything, it means the freedom to go about your life without having to worry about all the animosity you encounter.

That's what Amnesty International's council meeting will decide next week when they are asked to vote on a proposal that would recognise prostitution as a human right.

By doing so, Amnesty is asserting that prostitution is a matter of free choice.

“By definition,” Amnesty’s proposal states, “sex work means that sex workers who are engaging in commercial sex have consented to do so."

Except we all know that for many vulnerable caught up in the trade, prostitution is most certainly not a matter of free choice.

What about child sexual abuse? What about the power differences between sex workers and pimps, the power balances of sex and race? These powers dominate the commercial sex industry.

And it is only in few countries where sex work can be anything close to guaranteed safe.

In Sweden, for example, there is a legal distinction between workers forced into the industry by poverty, violence or discrimination, and customers who exercise power and privilege. Swedish law criminalises only those buying, instead offering support services to those who are bought.

While it might be possible to legalise sex work through such legal distinctions, Amnesty is so far failing to make this distinction.

Proposing to legalise the sex industry without further precautions is irresponsible, and Amnesty should know better.

28.Jul

July 28th, 2015

World's first malaria vaccine available soon?

EDITOR:

Murat Suner

As we reported in our dossier "Malaria, still a Threat", about 500,000 children die from malaria every year – one child every minute – mainly in Africa. And in fact, half the world's population live in areas at risk of infection.

Hence, millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa could benefit if European regulators and the WHO recommend the world’s first malaria vaccine called Mosquirix.

While, as we reported, the Max Planck Institute in Potsdam has been intensely researching on more cost-effective methods to produce malaria medication, the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) started the research on a vaccine in the late 1980s. It has been partly funded by the Gates Foundation, providing more than $200m in grants since 2001 reports the Guardian. GSK itself has invested more than $365m and expects to spend a further $200-250m until development is completed.

According to The Verge some scientists are concerned that the potential costs associated with such a complex and somewhat ineffective vaccine may outweigh the benefits. Still, Africa is in desperate need for a malaria vaccine, even if it's only partially effective.

Brian Greenwood, professor of clinical tropical medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who has been involved in the project for two decades, has described the vaccine as “imperfect”, but nonetheless experts have hailed it as an important breakthrough. It was tested across 11 different African sites.

There were 198 million malaria cases in sub-Saharan Africa in 2013, so even a partially effective vaccine could prevent millions of cases, Greenwood said.

Image: The Verge

27.Jul

July 27th, 2015

India turns towards the Andamans for expansion

EDITOR:

Gurmeet Singh, Berlin

The Andaman Islands, the archipelago in the Bay of Bengal, may be brought into the “mainstream”, enabling the inhabitants to enjoy the fruits of development.

D.M. Shukla, the islands’ tribal welfare secretary, said that the opposing view, the one which said expansion into and development of the islands should be limited and respect the culture and environment of indigenous peoples, was a less popular view.

That’s right, India is turning its attention towards developing the Andaman Islands. For years it’s treated the idea of development with casual disregard, but with a growing sense of the islands’ strategic and commercial importance, Prime Minister Narender Modi has affirmed his commitment to do much more than talk. It may also be an indication of India’s wider ambitions to expand political influence in the region – not only by commercial means, but by having a stronger military presence on the islands. Myanmar is to the east, along with Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and some have already speculated that such a move could be done to enhance relationships with these nations while circumventing the need to include China.

Which means tribes, wildlife and forests are in trouble. While A. K. Singh added that the people and land would have measures of protection, there is already a worrying amount of dismissal involved in the discussion. Firstly, there is an obvious parallel between bringing tribes into the mainstream of world discourse, and colonial descriptions of bringing enlightenment to the benighted natives – an irony that would be laughable were it not tragic. Secondly, quoting again from the New York Times, Vivek Rae, former chief secretary of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, said it was unrealistic to reserve 1,000 square km of forest for 400-odd Jarawas (a tribe).

It is well-known and understood that when land is designated for development, either for resources or for the land itself, the population living off that land are dismissed – while no accurate population records exist, the idea that those people are no longer entitled to that land has entered the discussion.

Human rights groups and environmentalists have argued against any moves to develop the land, protesting that the environment is not only beautiful but unique, and the people should be left undisturbed.

India’s case represents one in the new world of political expansions. Developing countries expanding into areas while disregarding the rights of indigenous peoples will be the story again and again, across the world. That’s why it’s important to have this discussion now – to temper commercial and political interests with human rights discourse. Maybe that could become a new kind of mainstream.

Image: SurvialInternational.org Jarawa Tribe on Andaman Island

24.Jul

July 24th, 2015

No Ramadan in China

EDITOR:

Ama Lorenz

Last month as Ramadan started, Chinese authorities moved into action. Their plan: no Ramadan for China's minority Uyghur population. The Uyghurs are a Turkic muslim ethnic group living primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, where they are one of 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the international rights group Human Rights Watch have highlighted the struggle of the Uyghur to find a safe haven elsewhere in the region. RFE/RL revealed that “the state food and drug administration in Xinjiang's Jinghe County posted information that ‘food service workplaces will operate during normal hours during Ramadan’ and that includes restaurants owned by Uyghurs. Officials in Xinjiang's Bole County were told, ‘During Ramadan, do not engage in fasting, vigils, or other religious activities.’

The Chinese government has long manipulated the threat of terrorism to justify its crackdown on the 10 million ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Human rights violations documented by Human Rights Watch in recent years include broad denial of political, cultural and religious rights, torture and enforced disappearances, extensive censorship, and pervasive socio-economic discrimination.

Recent rules have forbidden all but elderly Uyghur men from growing beards. Women are prohibited from wearing burqas. People under 18 are not allowed to attend mosque.

According to RFE/RL ‘the ban on fasting is a new tactic in an ancient conflict between the Uyghurs and the Han Chinese. The Uyghurs are resisting the rule of China's Communist Party just as Uyghurs have resisted the domination of previous Chinese governments. This conflict goes on since the 1949 revolution and gets a new quality in the age of Islamic extremism.’

The new ban on fasting now also reached Turkey, home to an estimated 300,000 Uyghurs. Turkey's foreign minister released a statement that said, "Our people have been saddened over the news that Uyghur Turks have been banned from fasting or carrying out other religious duties in the Xinjiang region." In return China issued a travel warning to citizens traveling to Turkey.

As often in historic conflicts there is no simple solution. On one side Turkey won't forget the deportation of 109 Uyghurs, in black hoods, being taken to the plane and disembarking in China. On the other side there are Uyghurs who have left China and joined Islamic extremist groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

The ban on fasting seems like a helpless attempt by the Chinese government to handle a conflict that goes ways deeper and has international dimensions.

Turkey’s press freedom record has become devastating in recent years with scores of journalists jailed, fired or harassed over their reporting.

According to Hürriyet Daily News, a Republican People’s Party (CHP) report revealed on July 22 the plight of culture and arts in Turkey, notes 65 cases of pressure, bans and censorship in the first half of 2015 alone.

Now, after the deadly Suruç bombing, which claimed at least 32 lives in Turkey’s southeast, the Turkish journalist Kadri Gürsel has been dismissed from his job. Gürsel, a popular columnist for daily newspaper Milliyet, shared a post on his Twitter account in which he anonymously referred to President Erdoğan and "criticized foreign leaders’ phone calls" after the deadly Suruç bombing, which claimed at least 32 lives in Turkey’s southeast reports Hürriyet Daily News.

Gürsel, who is also the president of International Press Institue (IPI) Turkish National Committee, tweeted “It is shameful that foreign leaders call and console the person who is the number one cause of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] terror in Turkey.”

Following that, daily Milliyet published a statement on its website that said the group had parted ways with Gürsel as his comments were not in accord with journalism ethics and the group’s publishing views.

Until 2011 Milliyet was part of the Doğan Media Group. Due to its government critical reporting the group was harassed and heavily fined by Turkish tax authorities. In the aftermath it was aquired by the Demirören Holding, which is said to have close ties to the ruling AKP government.